"I say Jeeves, what time was I to meet Cat's Meat down at the drones for a game of Slosh?" Jeeves shimmered out of the room, and promptly reappeared with a cheque for £1,000,000. "Topper, where did you get that? Did your gege come in at Goodwood?" I said with something of a knitted brow. "No ... Read review
Advantages: you can ask in plane english Disadvantages: Jeeves will try to get you to buy a book when he's stumped
"I say Jeeves, what time was I to meet Cat's Meat down at the drones for a game of Slosh?" Jeeves shimmered out of the room, and promptly reappeared with a cheque for £1,000,000. "Topper, where did you get that? Did your gege come in at Goodwood?" I said with something of a knitted brow. "No Sir, if you ask me the right question, this could be yours."
From Jeeves jumps on the bandwagon
P.G.Woodehouse ... ...valet he was, a gentleman's gentleman (in the old sense of the word) and not a butler) to Bertie Wooster, now as well known as a helpful search engine. What is a search engine? Well it's a web-based tool to help you find the web sites and information you want.
The Beauty of Jeeves
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No I don't refer to the pointy nose, or the huge jaw, not even to the natty pin strip jacket. The beauty I refer ... more
"I say Jeeves, what time was I to meet Cat's Meat down at the drones for a game of Slosh?" Jeeves shimmered out of the room, and promptly reappeared with a cheque for £1,000,000. "Topper, where did you get that? Did your gege come in at Goodwood?" I said with something of a knitted brow. "No Sir, if you ask me the right question, this could be yours."
From Jeeves jumps on the bandwagon P.G.Woodehouse 1936
Jeeves, P.G.Woodehouse's immortal character, valet (for valet he was, a gentleman's gentleman (in the old sense of the word) and not a butler) to Bertie Wooster, now as well known as a helpful search engine. What is a search engine? Well it's a web-based tool to help you find the web sites and information you want.
The Beauty of Jeeves ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No I don't refer to the pointy nose, or the huge jaw, not even to the natty pin strip jacket. The beauty I refer to is the ease of use. You see Jeeves can be asked a question in normal language. What this means is you can pop a question to Jeeves with any normal word such as where, how, what, I, am and so on with out the faithful chap batting an eyelid, and more importantly coming up with the goods on your search.
Where as before a question such as: Where can I make lots of money?
Would have been phrased: Lots+money. On an old style search engine to ensure you didn't get overloaded with search results for the word where, can, I, make and of. For example this question in Yahoo will try to search for the exact phrase "Where can I make lots of money?" with results like:
"The food was in a can and was the reason Heinz's make lots of money."
Jeeves will quite happily give you a list of links (click-able words or icons to other sites) such as:
"How can I use the internet to make a return on my money?" and "Where can I find a monthly budget planner to help me save money?" and "Where can I find the personal finance director Money extra?"
You see Jeeves is almost human. He can understand plain speech and apply your words as a question, by filtering out the irrelevant words.
This makes Jeeves an ideal search engine for people who are new to the internet, or who just refuse to understand the way a computer works.
Jeeves likes to KISS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeeves is an incredibly easy site to use and navigate. Once you've pointed your browser at the simple address www.ask.co.uk you can clearly see how it works. Jeeves is a great believer in KISS (no not the rock group) KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. The opening page shows our trusty friend inviting you to ask him a question, "Have a question? Type it in and click ask!" so helpfully placed above a big white box with the word "ask" next to it. Pop in your question and click. It's that simple, stupid!
For those of you who don't get out much, moments of fun can be had looking in the box just below, where it shows the most recent questions that have been asked. My all time favourite was "How drunk am I?" I could just imagine some boozy netizen typing that in at 3am on a Saturday morning.
The answers ~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh course Bertie Wooster would often wax lyrical about Jeeves' excellent grey matter. He put it down to the consumption of fish. Unlike the valet ask.co.uk wont help you and your friends out of a series of scrapes with Aunts and sort out or dissolve engagements for you and your friends "Tuppy" Glosup and "Cat's Meat" Potter Purbright.
Ok Jeeves isn't always perfect with his answers, and if Jeeves doesn't have a clue what you are talking about he'll often try to pretend that Amazon have a book you might like to buy about it. But on the whole he is a fairly useful chap. The best way to find out is to toddle off and pop a few questions to him.
The site ~~~~~~~~ One thing that impresses me about ask.co.uk is that it isn't information overload. Go to Yahoo or Lycos and just look at the amount of information you are bombarded with on the welcome screen. Jeeves in the tradition of the true Gentleman's gentleman, merely hovers in the background and is on hand the second you need him. The site is not graphics heavy and the images (what few of them there are) are small and quick to load. I have never found Jeeves to be tardy or absent.
Jeeves is also discreet, with a sense of morality, if you should ask him an adult question he will warn you that the answers may be of an adult content and you must be over 18. (Oops I've just realised asking Jeeves that question for the purposes of research could look dodgy in the papers when I win the million…oh well). If the program included the Netnanny or Cyberpatrol access managers this would make the search engine (along with it's simplicity) ideal for children.
Once you click on your answer Jeeves will escort you to the site. Sites are viewed in a separate frame with the Jeeves banner at the top, making returning to ask.co.uk very simple. Don't want the banner? Simply click remove frame and it will skidadle.
Jeeves also gives you the chance to look at a few common topics through the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen. I have seen these to include money, travel, entertainment and a link to Jeeves' mail ask's own free email facility.
Get your paws on the Million ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well every net-based company these days is trying to get in on the nations greed. We all want to win £1,000,000. So Jeeves has dipped into his saving and come up with a challenge for you. If you guess Jeeves' question (that means there is a question you must guess, NOT ask a question he has never been asked, because that would be simple) after registering a few details, then you could win the money or one of the tasty runner-up prizes on offer. There is a catch though, you may ask Jeeves no more than 50 questions a day, and that must be before one minute to midnight, if you ask more, tough, you will not be entered for the challenge that day. So pace yourselves. And no, I'm not even going to attempt to destroy another calculator working out the odds of winning, because trust me it's a 1 followed by a number that would make the data from SETI look like an easy number to crunch (my last poor calculator packed it's bags and left for a life of ease amongst other over worked Silicon tools after I asked it to work out the odds of getting the jack-pot on Banana Lotto).
"I say Jeeves you're a brick!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And indeed he is, I like the Jeeves site and recommend it as a must search tool. It's quick, easy and most importantly it brings home the bacon. The fact that at least 8 out of 10 times I get something close to what I want is enough to keep me asking, I don't need the offer of £1,000,000 to keep me using this search engine (that not to say I don't want the money).
One final word of warning, I got into the habit of addressing Jeeves by name and often started my question with "Jeeves where can I…." Or "Jeeves who is…" or ended with "…money please Jeeves?" This is pointless; Jeeves is so pleased your taking in interest in him that he'll start to talk about himself. Try it; you'll see what I mean.
With thanks to: P.G.Woodehouse www.yahoo.co.uk www.ask.co.uk www.lycos.co.uk and of course to you Jeeves. "It was nothing sir!"
Advantages: Different concept for a Search Engine, You can ask actual questions, Current content in results Disadvantages: Occasionally some questions may not be answerable, May be a dissadvantage for those seeking very detailed searches
Ask Jeeves is the Search Engine with a difference and very unlike your usual Search Engines such as Yahoo and Lycos, to name a few.
What struck me most about Ask Jeeves was the simplicity of the start page. An unknowing visitor could not be blamed for mistaking this as a website for a posh restaurant or hotel.
Unlike other search engines Ask Jeeves asks you; Have A Question? Let me help you find the answer. This is very unique indeed.
Another ... ...instead of only a phrase or a keyword.
One example I would like to give you in order for you to understand they true potential of the search feature offered is:
I asked the following question: “What is the capital city of Ghana”
My results were: “The capital city of Ghana is Accra”. This off course is the correct answer. But not only did they provide me with my answer but also provided me with an option to find out more ...
vinodgm 19.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of askjeeves.co.uk
Advantages: uses natural language Disadvantages: answers are frequently less than useful
'Oh', I lamented in my chair for the fourth time that fine summer's evening, 'Dear Jeeves.... - will you ever learn?'
Alas, no, it seems. Jeeves, my internet butler, far from serving me, his master, with any information from the internet I so desire, will be served himself with his P45. I suspect Jeeves has had the tantalus keys copied: I'm sure I could detect the smell of sherry when he told me with a straight face I can buy curtains from an Irish ... ...The site makes a big play about the fact that Jeeves is an intelligent "being". Jeeves, apparently, exists to tame the Internet for you. His only wish is to make your experience of it more rewarding and therefore more enjoyable. Lofty ideals, yet Jeeves proves somewhat challenged in the cranial department.
According to Jeeves himself (although he doesn't like to blow his own trumpet, naturally sir) HE is the web's foremost question answerer, and ...
andyev 23.07.2001 (27.05.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of askjeeves.co.uk
Advantages: easy to use, win a million, very thorough result Disadvantages: none
Jeeves wants you to ask a question they have never been asked before to win a million pounds! Sounds good but www.askjeeves.com is a massive site which has been going for a while now and therefore this may be more difficult than it sounds!
The concept of the site is very simple, all you have to do is go to the site and type your question. Jeeves then finds possible sites that will help you answer your question. Most people have probably heard of ... ...it is a very good site for any questions you may have and 9 times out of 10 has provided me with a helpful answer. First you will see...
The results of your question are given in a line below your original question. These are what jeeves considers to be helpful information on your question, all you have to do is pick the one/s that sound good and click on them. You will then be taken to the web address shown. Secondly...
A nice touch is the previously ...
emmahancock99 13.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of askjeeves.co.uk
Advantages: it finds what you are looking for Disadvantages: You have to be very precise in how you ask
Not much of an update just to say that good old jeeves £1million question has finished and that it looks like he gets to keep it :o( maybe he can buy himself a new suit :o) Here is the challenge! If you think you can ask a question that hasn’t been asked before, the £1million is yours to keep! If you don’t, then don’t worry because you can ask up to fifty questions a day and you will be entered into a daily draw of fantastic prizes ... ...This is what “Ask Jeeves” is promising at the moment. As a search engine that rampages through the internet for every question that is asked l am sure some really weird and wonderful stuff has been answered.
Since l have been using the internet l have used Ask Jeeves on many occasion and without fail from the depths of all those sites an answer has been brought to my screen. The home page is not cluttered with banners and there is a ...
nitebabe 02.06.2001 (18.07.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of askjeeves.co.uk
Advantages: Easy to use for simple minds like mine Disadvantages: Not particularly good for indepth research - try google?
I don't believe it. Dooyoo has everything on it but they have only just added ask.co.uk. Either this is an oversight or I am one of the few using ask Jeeves! How could anyone miss the tacky tv ads asking you to use Jeeves (butler guy from PGWodehouse I think, might be very wrong). Ask is a meta search engine, this means that it searches other search engines, generally lycos, yahoo types. It is easy to use and well laid out. You simply type your question ... ...It always discounts the 'where can i find a site about' part of the question and concentrates on the info part. It returns you results in groups. It is all very well labelled. The first few sites have a few lines info and you click on the links, these are UK sites (if available). The next block of results are those from the meta search. They have the name of the search engine used on the left as a link. Click on this and you will be taken directly ...
chemistangel 08.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of askjeeves.co.uk
